Machine for making wood fiber



H. W. MERRILL, DECD. A. M. MERRILL. ADMiNISTHATRIX, AND G. P. MERRILL. ADMINISTRATOR.

MACHINE FOR MAKING WOOD FIBER.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 24, l9l9.

Patented Oct. 10, 1922.

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HERBERT w. MERRILL, DECEASED, m. ANNA v seernr w, arm sconce r. MERRILL, amvrmrsrneroa, or seernew, merrree entire lYiEEEBiILL. ADh'IIIlISTRATRIX, OF

MACHINE FOR HEARING W'OOD FIBER.

Application filed October at, 1919.

T 0 all whom it 07mg concern: v e it known that we, ANNA M. MERRILL, administratrix, and Gnononl MERRILL, ad- .Ininistrator, of the estate of HERBERT l/V. MERRILL, deceased, citizens of the United States, both residing at Saginaw, in the county of baginaw, State of Michigan, have become possessed of certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for Making Wood Fiber, the same being the invention of the said HERBERT l V. MERRILL, late of -Saginaw,lifichigan; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to. make and use the same. This invention .relates making wood fiber and pertains more particularly to an improved cutter head adapted to manufacture'fiber from waste slabs and edgings by progressively removing the surface of the material in shreds or fibers as it passes .theciittenthemovement of the material 'being lengthwise its grain.

In the-manufacture of wood fiber to be usediasa substitute for hair in the making of mortar for plastering and similar work, it is essentialthat the fibers be of substantially uniform thickness and long, with as small a percentage as possible of broken fibers.

It is also desirable that a machine for making such material shall be capable of being readily adjusted so as to produce fibersof greater or lessthickness asmay be desired.

The objects of my improvement are, first,

to provide a cutter head of simple and dura view, which will-appear later in the specifi- V to machines for I Serial No. 332,851.

cation, my invention consists of described and claimed and the thereof.

In the drawings, Fig. l is an end view of a cutter head with its knives attached.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of part of a knife.

Fig. 3 is a plan view broken away in part, showing a modified form of knife.

Fig. 4 is a diagrammatic view showing the relative working positions of the cutting edges of three successive knives. i

Fig. 5 is a detail view showing the fibers in the finished product.

big. 6 1s a perspective view of a board or slab, showing the appearance of its scored surface, after having passed the knives.

Jig. 7 is a part sectional side view of a knife, indicating by dotted lines the manner of sharpening.

{is is clearly shown the devices equivalents in the drawings, the

able or usual construction, a hexagonal head being shown for purposeof illustration.

2 is the journal of the cutter head and 3 the knives, which are provided with fasten ing devices, by which the knives are secured to the cutter head. These fastening devices may be of any suitable construction, as for illustration, the slotted holes 3, which may be formed in the knife,to receive the screws l.

The edge of each knife is formed with a plurality of teeth produced by cutting serrations 6 along the edge of the knife, as shown in Figs. 3 and 7. These serrations extend from the front or advancing face of the blade backward to the rear face 3, as shown by the dotted line at 12 in Fig. 7.

The knives are mounted on the cutter head 1 in substantially the relation shown diagrammatically in Fig. 4, where 7, 8 and 9 represent the relative positions of the cutsuccessive knives on the As the board passes the cutter head in the of the spacmanner commonly employed in planers and other wood working; machines, the surface of the board is scored by the teeth 6 of knife 7, so that the points of successive knives separate the wood to its fibers and loosen the fibers by suece *ely crowding them sidewise, as disti; ushed from the action of knives in excelsior and sfnavinp machine by which pieces of wood are merely cut or chipped off from the material. The scoring action herein referred to is similar to the scoring produced by a sharp scratch awl, the point of which is repeatedly inserted in closely adjacent position into the surface of the wood and then drawn alone the face of the material in a direction su stantially parallel with the grain of the wood. 1 thereby produce long slender somewhat hair-like iibers which are suited tor use as substitute for hair in plastering, structural work, etc. The teeth of blade 8 follow iniiinediately he cut of blade 7, but being slightly offset with relation to the teeth of blade '2', score the surface of the material in different places and loosen the fibers of the board between the. scores. Similarly, a further scoring of the surface is made by l i 1e 9, the effect being when the cutter head. is rapidly rotated, to quickly shred the surface of the material and to produce a large quantity of fibers of substantially uniform sine and ceniparatively long, as indicated diagrannnatically in Fig. 5.

To provide for easily and quickly grinding the knives without altering; the shape of the teeth, I arrange the serrations shown in Fig. 7, l

and as previously d scribed, so that the grinding Wheel when passed along the surface of the knife will remove the metal, as shown at 10, Fig. 7, and the second grinding will further remove the metal as shown at 11. Thisprocess may be repeated until the knife is worn out without changing the shape of "he cutting teeth.

By the means above described, I have produced a cutter that is capable of producing fibers of substantially uniform size and comparatively long, and at a high rate of speed. No especially skilled labor is required to make the adjustments by which finer or coarser material is produced, and the knives be sharpened by anyone who can sharpen a plain fiat knife.

Having thus described my invention, what we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is: i

in a wood fiber cutting machine, the combination with a cutter head, knives mounted thereon, each knife having its cutting edge provided with teeth forming sharp scoring points, the scoring points of one knife being offset sidewise with relation to the scoring points of the next knife, the amount of offset beingonly slightly in proportion to the width of the scoring point, whereby the wood scored by the teeth of one knife is successively sheared. by the succeeding slightly offset knives to produce long hair-like fibers,

. 1 sues .ntia y as described. in testimony whereof We affix our slgnatures.

ANNA M. MERRILL,

Admin is tmtm'ac.

GEO. P. MERRILL,

A dmim's Motor. 

